Rain can't stop play

The scene was more ploughed field than turf

carpet but Evan Williams decided it was time for

his Cheltenham Gold Cup hope State of Play to

show his mettle in the wake of lead horse Cannon Fire yesterday.

His Vale of Glamorgan farm,

once home to 80 cows, now houses

three bright Cheltenham hopes in

the Hennessy Gold Cup winner, Grand Annual entry Demi Beau and Pole Star, who has

the choice of the William Hill

Handicap or Fulke Walwyn

Kim Muir Chases.

Read more:

• Taylor Made

• Something For The Weekend

• Grand plans for Gallagher

• Dempsey an Imperial possible

All three took part in the

mile-and-a-half-gallop with

cloudbursts, lightning and

westerlies whistling up the

nearby Bristol Channel for

company.

The laid-back State of Play,

unraced since his big day at

Newbury on November 25, looked

in peak condition. Small, athletic

and nimble, he wouldn’t win any

show horse competition. But

handsome is as handsome does.

He bids to become only the second

Welsh-trained chaser to land

the blue riband of chasing following

in the hoofprints of Norton’s

Coin’s 100-1 success in 1990.

The next two weeks are crucial

for Williams, whose autumn starburst

of winners has descended

into a New Year black hole as his

100-horse stable has struggled for

success in 2007.

Fifty three winners heralded a

new star of the jumping firmament

as 2006 drew to a close. He

was keeping pace with David Pipe with whom he shared the pointto-

point championship in 2002.

But, while Pipe’s big guns have

continued to fire meaningful

shots, Williams, who decided to

concentrate on racing full time

when the 2001 Foot and Mouth crisis

devastated his dairy business,

has hit a brick wall. Only three

winners have been registered in

the first two months of 2007.

But the optimism at Aberogwrn

Farm, where the cowsheds have

made way for big American-style

horse barns over the past four

years, is infectious.

Williams, 35, married with three

children, said: "I’m biased — I’ve

got such great faith in State of

Play. I thought he was a handicap

good thing in the Hennessy and in

the race at Aintree that he won

last April. He goes best fresh

because he takes so much out of

himself in his races.

"I think there are fewer question

marks about him than many of

the others in the Gold Cup. Mind

you, this will be only his sixth ever

chase. He’s won five of them.

"I bought him for 18,000gn and

Demi Beau for 10,000gn on the

same day at Doncaster sales, not a

bad day’s work, was it? State of

Play wouldn’t tell you much in a

gallop but he lights up at the track."

Towards the end of last year

there were dark mutterings about

the level of success being enjoyed

by a relative newcomer to the

sport. It was the same type of

envy that dogged Martin Pipe 20

years ago.

Williams and his wife

Catherine admit that their horses

were dope tested almost every

time they ran. But spot inspections

by the HRA at their stable

threw up nothing.

Williams is worried that the level

of success enjoyed earlier in the

season has tapered off. But he

insists that it is just a question of

desperate going which most of his

team dislike and the handicapper

catching up with some of them.

He added: "You can’t hide from

the statistics and they tell you

that I can’t train ivy up a wall at

the moment. But no horse that I

thought would win has failed to.

"I train by intuition and I have

never been afraid of the big guns.

If they are better than us, so be it.

We’ll be doing our level best and I

can’t wait for Cheltenham."